It’s Not Just In Your Head, Having A Cold Office Does Make You Less Productive

The debate comes around at this same time every year, the sun begins to shine and our bodies finally feel warmth only for the air conditioning in our office to be turned colder and colder until walking into work feels like entering a new time zone. ‘Can we change the air contemperature?’ someone asks, emergency cardigan wrapped around their shoulders, only to be met with disgruntled replies and the same ice-cold air on arrival all Summer.

Typically, it’s a gender-dividing issue, and that’s not stereotyping, it’s actual science. Women have long been known to prefer warmer conditions than men because our metabolic rate is lower. Where before it felt like an issue of comfort, something that could be easily dismissed by the air-con powers that be, a new study has found that it’s actually impacting women’s performance.

Studying over 500 people, researchers in Germany found that when women perform tasks designed to test their cognitive function, they test better in warmer environments while men do in cooler. Testing participants in various temperatures from 16.2 degrees to 32.6 degrees, the authors concluded that current air conditioning should be set to much warmer temperatures for all genders to equally perform at their best.

‘Ultimately, our results potentially raise the stakes for the battle of the thermostat, suggesting that it is not just about comfort, but also about cognitive performance and productivity,’ they said, ‘Given the relative effect sizes, our results suggest that in gender-balanced workplaces, temperatures should be set significantly higher than current standards.’

Given that many workplaces are in fact gender-balanced, with certain industries female-dominated, it stands to reason that women can actually demand warmer conditions in order to increase their productivity at work. When we already have so many deeply entrenched obstacles to climb over in trying to succeed in any career, changing something as simple as air conditioning feels like an easy and simple way for workplaces to improve treatment of their female employees.

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It might sound dramatic, but in a world designed by men for men, from our health services to our space suits, it’s unsurprising that air conditioning is also designed for men to perform better. According to previous research, most office temperatures are set in accordance with an algorithm based on male resting metabolic rates. The algorithm is both decades old and clearly does not account for women’s performance in the workplace.

So actually, all the times you complained about the air conditioning being too cold, you weren’t just fighting against feeling a bit frosty, you were fighting yet another tool of the patriarchy designed by men, for men that never considered women’s productivity important. Write that in an email to your facilities team, they certainly can’t scoff at you now.